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The Unofficial Blogger of the Chicago Cubs in Canada

Carpenter Carves Up Cubs

It could have been worse, like an 18-5 loss but thankfully the Cubs got beat last night by an easier score of 6-3. It wasn’t bad at all with the exception of Matt Carpenter who was out hunting bear in this series.

“We’re seeing this guy probably at the best moment of his life as a baseball player,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said.

The Cubs had the lead going into the sixth inning but it happened in the seventh when Carpenter took the cover off of the ball. That home run marked his sixth consecutive game with a home run. It’s pretty hard to beat a guy who’s in the zone like Carpenter.

It was nice to see Anthony Rizzo with four hits but in the end, it all came down to Carpenter. Although Javier Baez was yanked out of the game along with Maddon on a call that was questionable, it probably hurt the Cubs chances with Baez in the locker room.

“I didn’t think I said anything to disrespect anyone,” Baez said. “It was a pretty close call. I only asked for [Little] to check with the umpire at first. [Little] didn’t say anything. I threw my helmet and he threw me out for no reason — I guess for my helmet [toss].

“My message — we’re not animals. Sometimes we ask, ‘Where was the pitch?’ or if it was a strike. They want to come at us like we’re offending them. I think we can talk the things out. If you disrespect somebody, then you get ejected. I don’t think there was anything there to get ejected.”

I kinda disagree with Baez on this one. Yeah, it was a close call but when it all comes down to the umpire’s job, it should be the umpire making the decision, not the player. My reasoning is simple; If the player’s are allowed to make game decisions, then it overrides any judgement calls by the umpires. What would be the point of having an umpire in the first place, right? All they would have to do is check the replay on every pitch. That would suck.

“I told [Little] to kick me out because I was not going to leave under those circumstances,” Maddon said. “As an umpire, you have all the right to kick a guy out if he’s belligerent, obnoxious, profane, and Javy was none of that.”

Rightfully so. Maddon’s got to stick up for his players at all times whether it’s right or wrong. However, I will maintain this position forever, the beauty and magic of the game will always be on the final call by the umpire. Players will go down in history and all the way to the hall of fame based on whether there should have been a certain call on a particular call.